5 Fun Facts About Private Rocket Company SpaceX

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The private spaceflight company SpaceX is preparing to launch an
unmanned capsule to the International Space Station this week on
a demonstration flight that could mark a turning point for the
commercial spaceflight industry.

SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule is slated to blast off atop the
company's Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday (May 22) at 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744
GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It
will be the second launch attempt after an initial try was
aborted at the last second due to a
rocket engine glitch.

The mission is designed to test Dragon's ability to haul cargo to
and from the International Space Station. If the flight goes
well, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX will make history by
becoming the first company to dock a privately built spacecraft
to the orbiting outpost. The test flight is part of a NASA
program to foster the development of a new fleet of private
spaceships to ferry hardware and supplies to the space station.
[ Quiz:
How Well Do You Know SpaceX's Dragon? ]

With final preparations for the landmark flight underway, here
are five fun facts about SpaceX:

1)What's in a name?

SpaceX's billionaire CEO
Elon Musk has said that he named his spacecraft "Dragon"
after the fictional "Puff the Magic Dragon," from the hit song by
music group Peter, Paul and Mary. Musk said he used the name
because many critics considered his goals impossible when he
founded SpaceX in 2002.

This year, the company is celebrating its 10th anniversary and
has a $1.6 billion deal with NASA to provide 12 unmanned cargo
flights to the International Space Station. Another company,
Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., is also under contract
with the agency to provide supply flights to the orbiting lab.

The wheel of cheese was launched in honor of a classic skit from
actor John Cleese in the British comedy show Monty Python's
Flying Circus.

"It's kind of funny," Musk told reporters after the successful
launch in 2010. "If you like Monty Python, you'll love the
secret."

The cheese rode inside the Dragon capsule for the entire flight,
from the launch in Florida to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean,
500 miles (804 kilometers) west of Mexico.

After the mission, SpaceX released photos of the cheese wheel,
showing it inside a metal cylinder with a cover secured by bolts.

3) Rise of the Falcon

SpaceX's fleet of Falcon rockets — the Falcon 9 boosters and
smaller Falcon 1 rockets — are named after the fictional
Millenium Falcon spaceship from creator George Lucas' "Star Wars"
movies. In the sci-fi classics, the iconic Millenium Falcon
spacecraft is commanded by the character Han Solo.

4)The Real Iron Man in Charge

Part of the live-action superhero movie "Iron Man 2" was shot in
SpaceX's factory in Hawthorne, Calif., and CEO Elon Musk even
graced the silver screen with a cameo as himself. In a profile of
the
commercial spaceflight pioneer written for TIME magazine,
"Iron Man 2" director Jon Favreau said Musk inspired actor Robert
Downey, Jr.'s portrayal of the character Tony Stark, the genius
billionaire behind the famed Marvel Comics superhero.

Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, is also the CEO of Tesla Motors
and made his initial fortune by co-founding the online payment
system PayPal. The entrepreneur has also developed a
larger-than-life persona, with admirers calling him the real-life
Tony Stark.

"That is pretty surreal," Musk told SPACE.com recently. "I guess
we are making giant rockets — that's kind of cool. I don't have a
suit of armor, though. I don't fly around in a suit of armor."

In 2010, SpaceX became the first company to launch a privately
built spacecraft into orbit and return it safely to Earth. The
company is now aiming to become the first to dock a commercial
space capsule to the International Space Station. Still, Musk has
even loftier goals: to be the first entrepreneur to put an
astronaut in orbit.

The company intends to use a version of the robotic Dragon
capsule to one day carry astronauts to the orbiting outpost and
other destinations in low-Earth orbit.

Musk has also been outspoken about the need for humans to
become a multi-planet species to survive. Eventually, he
plans to modify the Dragon spacecraft to one day land on the
surface of Mars.

You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on
Twitter@denisechow.
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